Sunday, October 3, 2010

Weekend Wrap Up

1.Larry the Cable Guy, the "Git-r-done" dude whose schtick is that he's a blue collar redneck hillbilly when in actuality he's a filthy, stinking rich comedian who does not have an actual southern accent and who earned over twenty million bucks in 2007, listed his 18.79 acre spread in Sanford, FL with an asking price of $1,550,000. And dear lo-ward jeezis, buttercups, the house is about as tastefully decorated as Mister Cable Guy is funny.

The flannel shirt wearing jokester, whose real name is Dan Whitney and who attended but dropped out of the Baptist University of America, purchased his 5 bedroom and 4.5 pooper homestead in January 1996 when he was still a bachelor man. He now has a wife and a couple of children who Your Mama would bet everything we have will not be raised as rednecks. The 6,000-ish square foot log cabin style mansion, includes a living room with stone fireplace, gore-may kitchen with rustic knotted pine cabinetry and antique brick accents, an office area where Mister Cable guy displays some of his gee-tar collection including one done up in an ever so klassy Confederate flag motif, media room, safe room, a game room/man cave with, horror of decorative horrors, obscene grass green wall to wall carpeting and a pool table with rust colored felt.

The gated grounds have state of the art security including cameras that can be monitored from anywhere in the world via the interweb, a tropical style swimming pool with beach, babbling brook, waterfall, spa with pop up outdoor television and, natch, a damn grotto. The not very redneck back yard also includes an outdoor kitchen and bar, fire pit, outdoor shower, outdoor movie theater, stocked fishing pond, and a separate building where the beer-gutted Mister Cable Guy exercises stays heart healthy if not exactly slim on the many body torture contraptions.

It's been widely reported that Mister and Missus Cable Guy also have a big house in Lincoln, NE and property records indicate they have another couple hundred acres out east of Lincoln near Walton.

2.Wild maned music video and commercial director Joe Pytka recently ate a man-sized slice of real estate humble pie when he sold his historic Hollywood Hills home known as Castillo delLago to Russian born fashion designer Leon Max of Max Studio for a reported $7,000,000. The quirky casa, built in 1926 by oil explorer Patrick Longdon, has a storied past. Rumor has it mobster BugsySiegel lived in and used the house as an illegal speakeasy and gambling parlor during the dark days of prohibition and in 1993 the hilltop estate was purchased by The KabbalahKween Madonna who is–for better or worse–the person responsible for the Ronald McDonald color scheme on the exterior.

Yes puppies, seven million smackers is most certainly lot of damn money by any standard. However, after first quietly shopping the property off-market for a few months, Mister Pytka officially listed the nearly 8,000 square foot Mediterranean mansion in April of 2009 with an overly ambitious asking price of $14,950,000. While he had to take less than half his original asking price, the somewhat eccentric director still made a bundle having paid $5,300,000 for the property.

3.A couple of weeks ago Your Mama discussed the Candy & Candy Co. designed London flat of Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue that she's got on the market with an asking price of £4,500,000. Although she has yet to unload her penthouse pad in the South Kensington area, recent reports reveal that the pretty pop star has already picked up a new crib where she plans on shacking up with her Spanish model man-friend AndrésVelencoso. Miss Minogue's new house is, according to her, "slightly bigger" and just a few a few blocks from her old two floor flat that she had all did up with a high-glam aspect by the folks at Candy & Candy. No word on what the pop princess paid for the place or if she plans on having the Candy people in to do the place over.

The 1929 Mediterranean, originally designed by much admired architect George Washington Smith designed and re-worked by avantgarde architect Coy Howard in the late 1980s, first appeared on the open market in late May of 2010 with an asking price of $12,500,000. In late September of 2010 the soo-blime but somewhat architecturally schizophrenic casa sold to Mister Rappaport for a substantially reduced $7,700,000. The buyer was, natch, represented by Mister Rappaport. For what it's worth, it appears to Your Mama that only Mister Rappaport's wife's name appears on the deeds and documents for the purchase. Make of that what y'all will because we don't have an iota of what that may or may not mean.

The children who haven't wrecked their brains on the booze and dope may recall that in February of 2008, after selling his recently rehabbed Bev Hills mansion to the Tom Cruises in April of 2007 for a shocking $30,500,000, Mister and Missus Rappaport picked up a 12,981 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills on N. Crescent Drive for $13,200,000. The real estate mogul and his wife had the interiors worked over by nice, gay decorator Waldo Fernandez, and then sold it in July of 2010 for $15,975,000 after first listing the 8 bedroom and 9.5 pooper property with a pie in the sky price tag of $28,500,000. Property records show that in January of 2010 Mister and Missus Rappaport bought a house in the flats of Beverly Hills for $4,500,000 from–it may interest the children to know–the very same gentleman who purchased their N. Crescent Drive digs. The couple flipped the bee-otch just a month later for $5,736,000.

The children may also recall that and also that Mister Palevsky's bluff top Malibu mansion was pushed on to the open market in July of 2010 with a weighty asking price of $55,000,000.

5.It shor must be nice to be the child of someone rich, famous and incredibly generous. Just as fashion designer Moises de la Renta whose daddy Oscar just laid out a couple million clams for a condo at the GwathmeySeigel and Associates designed SoHo Mews building. According to listing information, the 1,405 square foot condo has 2 bedroom, 2 poopers, floor to ceiling picture windows, swanky Valcucine cabinetry, and an asking price of $2,450,000 with monthly taxes and common charges that total $1,455. According to the New York Times, the condo will be occupied by the younger Mister de la Renta and used by Daddy de la Renta and his Missus Annette when they comes into the city from their sprawling estate in Kent, CT.

6.The good people at HousingWatchreported last week that hair obsessed real estate agent Chad Rogers of Million Dollar Listing has taken advantage of a sagging real estate market and dumped $850,000 in cold hard cash on a condo in Beverly Hills, CA that was last listed at $890,000 according to Redfin. Mister Rogers, who grew up in the star studded Colony in Malibu, actually purchased his condo crib in April of 2010.

The 2 bedroom and 2.5 pooper condo, located in a doorman building where singer Josh Groban used to own an in-town pied a terre, measures 1,694 square feet and includes HOA dues of $1,368 per month. There are, according to listing information, hardwood floors throughout, a living room with fireplace and French doors to a small patio that overlooks the street, and a kitchen with granite counters and stainless steel appliances.

Say what y'all will about Mister Rogers, his quirky ways and his less than glam new digs, but boyfriend owns his damn condo outright, which is more than most folks in their early thirties can say.

10 comments:

angie
said...

Re: cable guys house, it looks about like I expected. I'll never be a fan of log-rustic for anything more than a weekend retreat.

Re: Castillo del Lago, I'm noticing that many owners of higher end properties in the L.A. area list them for twice the amount or more than they're worth. I don't understand it and find it rather annoying actually because it seems so unabashedly greedy, especially in light of the economy including California's. I couldn't be bothered playing those kinds of real estate games, but apparently west coasters are used to it?

Re: Kurt Rappaport, I'd be willing to bet he lists the new home he's acquired after updating it for more than double what it's worth too.

Oh, what a shame...Castillo del Lago was sold to a russian ?!?Please, i'm having a "deja-vú" feeling with the cold war once again !!Madonna should NEVER had that house sold at the first place !!That old miserable b....

Mama: Twice in one week you reported that Josh Groban formerly owned a condo in the same building that Chad Rogers recently bought into. In fact, Josh still owns the condo and lives there -- in 2008 he put it into a trust. Just wanted to update you on that.

Re: Chad Rogers - bless his heart (and his ambitious hair), his grandma was a pioneer in providing polyester fashions back in the 60s-70s. Who knew? Hopefully Chad will man-up and come out of the closet one of these days (imagine the ratings for that episode, lol).

Mr Rappaport sold teh Crescent drive house for $15.975m plus the house in the flats which he sold for the $5.736m. I'm sure the $4.5m alleged purchase price is incorrect. I don't remember the story anymore but he made out in this deal